Wow...so, hello new year. 2000 sure went fast didn't it? It seems only a moment ago twitchy, black-toothed survivalists were filling their lead lined fallout shelters to the brim with gallon sized bean cans (full of beans) while the rest of the somewhat more sane globe flooded the streets rushing to the nearest ATM to withdraw their life savings (or at least take a polaroid, which is apparently a sufficient record). Sadly, I did not get to see these bunkers of legend, though I have a close friend who has almost a whole family of survivalists, so I heard pretty much first hand accounts of the insanity. My guess was revealed to not be too far off. To the beans to the (unmentioned above) 13 inbreed children. And in the halls of those who thought ahead (all of them), walls filled with the survivalist can opener; the AK-47.

All that has passed us by now (at least 2000...the bunkers are still full as the people inside breed and rebreed for the millennia it will take for the earth to become liveable on the outside again) and we've stepped over the actual millennium mark into 2001. We're now in the future...or at least, what was considered the future...in the past!

As I discussed many a time with a good friend of mine, it doesn't seem like the future (and sometimes, not even like the present). When I recall thinking of any 2000+ year when I was younger, I conjured many vivid images (not unlike David Copperfield with the Statue of Liberty) of flying cars and rocket packs to law enforcing robots (I was 9!) The only person with a rocket pack is a Michael Jackson and the rest of the things I imagined are far from happening. A college history professor of mine a year or two ago believed by this very year (keep in mind this was an 'educated' man) we'd all have individual jet propulsion systems rather than cars and they'd be our method of travel. It seems in his world (as possibly demonstrated by the Greeks), the people of the future need not concern themselves with small issues such as weather and carrying groceries to and fro. Given it was a fun topic (and anything to keep him from giving his monotone speeches on how much the Aztecs loved bowls got a plus in my book) to pass the time, the passion with which he spoke about it was at times rather spooky.

And not unlike the ancient Aztecs, and perhaps not unlike those inhabitants of the future (i.e. present day you and I), I expected great advancements in bowl technology as the future loomed ever closer on the horizon. But alas, technological advancement seems to have grown to a snail-like crawl as bowls remain not only mostly round, but still cup soups, cereals and "romantic salads" no better than the bowls of long ago. I cannot help but feel distraught.

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